jules2008 hardship claims - success through FOS

[Jester]

Re: jules2008 hardship claims

Jules,

I have only just caught up on this thread of yours.

Delighted that you found the letter I used to FD to be of help to you. However, I have to ask who your mortgage is with ?

Reading your letter, you state that your mortgage is with the RBS Group. However, later in your letter, you state your mortgage is with Halifax.

Halifax are NOT part of the Royal Bank Of Scotland Group.

Halifax, in fact, OWN the Bank of Scotland.

RBS are the Royal Bank of Scotland (a completely different entity that owns, among others, Nat West)

The full trading name of Halifax these days is HBoS (Halifax Bank of Scotland). It is very easy to confuse HBoS with RBS, but it is important that you realise that they are DIFFERENT banks.

Be sure who you are naming in this letter. It is important. Therefore, the question above still stands.

Is your mortgage with HBoS or RBS ?

I'm assuming your bank account is with Halifax, but am not so sure where your mortgage is from the way you have worded the letter.

If you want any further help, I will be happy to give it to you

[jules2008]

Re: jules2008 hardship claims

hi and thank you for pointing that out can become a bit confusing:crazy: well for me any how.

my mortgage is with Birmingham midshires who are connected to Halifax i believe do they own it probably. doh
But the people who took me to court for repossession are in fact Royal bank of scotland.
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looked at repossession letter again and it just say bank of scotland plc so is this not royal bank of scotland?

[Amethyst]

Re: jules2008 hardship claims

Halifax do own Birmingham Midshires - It would be HBOS or BOS took you to court not RBS.

If you like I'll have a work through your letter tomorrow, I agree its needs a little shortening.

Do you have your IE and evidences ready to go with it?



ah haaa you checked now lol. Bank of Scotland is a completely different entity to Royal Bank of Scotland - i still get confused sometimes.

[jules2008]

Re: jules2008 hardship claims

shall i change rbs to hbos will that be correct. Thank goodness for you guys i would be serious fodder without ya.
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ok i get it now.

yes i have my IE, repossession letter and council tax baliff letter to send with the revised letter.

so you rekon i will be good to go tomorrow thats perfect as that is when i get my printer back from being fixed.

[Amethyst]

Re: jules2008 hardship claims

Dear Sir or Madam,

Account number xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I would like to bring to your attention the FSA’s definition of Financial Difficulty in the Waiver terms affecting complaints about unlawful charges currently subject to High Court litigation. I believe I qualify to have my claim against Halifax dealt with on this basis.

I have recently, as you will be aware, changed my account to your basic account (WHATS THAT ACCOUNT CALLED?CARDCASH?) in order to try and prevent some of your charges being continuously applied.

I have been having financial difficulties following the breakdown of my relationship three years ago.


My finances were being handled by a debt management company Byron and Keeley however more recently I have sought advice from the Citizens Advice Bureau. They have assisted me in writing to my creditors' offering proportionally calculated payments, in many cases this is £1. (YOU WILL NEED TO SHOW THIS ON YOUR IE). All of my credits cards have been discontinued and are in the hands of the Debt Management Company

I am self employed which means no guarantee of income.

Additionally I am finding it increasingly difficult to meet my mortgage repayments. I have changed my mortgage from repayment to interest only in order to cope however Bank of Scotland gained a suspended possession order (copy enclosed) in Colchester County Court. I am finding it difficult to meet the payments agreed upon with Bank of Scotland due to the constant charges being applied to my account.

The sum of money I am claiming in unfair bank charges from Halifax is approx £15,000. This sum of money would enable me to repay my mortgage arrears plus other debts i have aquired, including arrears with my council tax (evidence enclosed)
As a single parent with a dependant child I have very little income (up to date Income Expenditure form enclosed) and I face the very realistic possibility that I could become homeless should I fail to be able to meet my monthly mortgage payments plus agreed arrears payment.

With this in mind I would ask that you re-examine my case under the terms of the waiver.

We are unlikely to see any resolution in the Bank Charges Test case between the OFT and the leading banks before the end of 2008. In my current situation, I cannot afford the luxury of waiting that long for such a resolution.

If you were to refund the Bank Charges that I believe were unfairly taken from my bank account over the course of the last 6 years , my outlook would improve significantly. Whilst it would not be a long term solution, it would certainly assist me in my battle to keep my home from being repossessed and give me some breathing space to keep up my mortgage payments which will enable me to become financially able to meet my commitments.

Your assistance in resolving this matter would be gratefully received. I therefore respectfully ask you formally for this assistance.


Yours truly






Jules

[Amethyst]

Re: jules2008 hardship claims

prolly needs a bit of rearranging but I don't think you need any more than that at this stage.

[Budgie]

Re: jules2008 hardship claims

Hi Jules,

I have just caught up with things on your thread.

The abbreviated version of the letter that Amethyst has posted looks great. I suggest you amend it by tidying and add in the information that she has suggested.

I am concerned about the level of charges. You say that you expect the charges now total about £20k and that you started having financial difficulties approx three years ago.

Please could you explain the charges side of things in a bit more detail.

1) Have you entered all the charges ( or at least the £15k incurred up to Jan 2007 ) onto a spreadsheet? Please could you send me a copy of the spreadsheet to check for you.

2) Have you already included an element of interest on top of the charges?

3) Are you able to download statements to enable you to update the spreadsheet with charges applied since Jan 2007?

The reason I am asking is that if the £20k is ALL charges ( no interest ) and these have been incurred over ONLY a three year period. then they seem to be extremely excessive ( £6.5k per annum ). If interest is already included or the charges have been incurred over a longer period then some tweaking of the letter you are preparing may be required.

Regards Budgie

[jules2008]

Re: jules2008 hardship claims

i have amended letter and have sent it to halifax so now i am waiting for replies from both the FOS and the Halifax.

Also awaiting a reply from the lloyds tsb with a list of bank charges to take off what I owe them.

I have contacted log book loans and I am not paying them any more money until they send me a statement of what I have paid so far and what I still owe plus a copy of original agreement.

I really feel I am doing something now to help myself and hope that I will achieve something.

[Amethyst]

Re: jules2008 hardship claims

Jules

don't just stop paying LBL - get the statement of account off them if they wont just send it to you you can request it and the original agreement under the consumer credit act. Stopping paying will rack charges up big style and they arent exactly adverse to further action.

Even if you only pay them £10 a month make some sort of payment.

Send the CCA request - I'll get you a decent letter in a moment - then if nothing after 12 days you could stop paying properly and have back up.

Two secs

[Amethyst]

Re: jules2008 hardship claims

Hopefully this is what you did when you say you contacted them, but if not I would recommend doing it

Consumer Credit Agreements - A Guide - Legal Beagles

Dear Sir/Madam

ACCOUNT NUMBER: xxxx
YOUR REF: xxxx

I DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE ANY DEBT TO YOUR COMPANY

With reference to the above account, I request that you send me a true copy of this credit agreement before I will correspond further on this matter.

This is my right under the legislation contained within section 77 (1) and section 78 (1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, and I am entitled to receive a copy of my credit agreement on request.

Your obligation also extends to providing me with a statement of account. I enclose a £1 postal order, which represents payment of the statutory fee payable under the Consumer Credit Act. I understand that a copy of my credit agreement should be supplied within 12 working days from the date of this letter.

I understand that under the Consumer Credit Act, creditors are unable to enforce an agreement if they fail to comply with a request for a copy of the agreement under these sections of the Act.

Also, since you are a Debt Collection Agency, I would also ask that you supply a signed true copy of the executed deed of assignment for the above referenced agreement. This is an obligation, whether you are the original creditor or not, under section 189 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974.

For the sake of clarity, may I also draw your attention to the following:
Consumer Credit Act 1974 s.175
Where under this Act a person is deemed to receive a notice or payment as agent of the creditor or owner under the regulated agreement, he shall be deemed to be under a contractual duty to the creditor or owner to transmit the notice, or remit the payment, to him forthwith.

Non-compliance with my request is a criminal offence under the above Act and will result in a report being submitted to the relevant statutory authorities.

In summary, I DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE THIS DEBT AND THEREFORE REQUIRE YOU TO SUBSTANTIATE THIS BY PROVIDING THE FOLLOWING DOCUMENTATION BEFORE I CORRESPOND FURTHER :

1. True copy of original signed executed credit agreement
2. FULL Statement of account
3. Copy of the executed deed of assignment from (original creditor) and (DCA)
4. A fair processing notice.

As you are aware, a credit agreement that is not properly documented and signed by the customer is totally unenforceable under the CCA and therefore is a complete defence to any court claim that is issued.

Take note at this stage, that any legal action you may contemplate will be both vigorously defended and contested.

Further to the above, please ensure that any contact by yourselves is made in writing only to the above address. Telephone calls and personal visits will not be accepted and viewed as harassment.
I look forward to hearing from you within the statutory time limit.

I would appreciate your due diligence in this matter.

I look forward to hearing from you in writing.

Yours faithfully

[jules2008]

Re: jules2008 hardship claims

update on hardship claim

awaiting reply from lloyds tsb re: SARS

got a reply from FOS regarding Halifax claim they have all the relevant paperwork and i am being assigned an adjudicator who will be contacting my shortly regarding my case so this seems to be moving forward.

RH have found my postal orders so they are proceeding with my other claims with GE money barclaycard and mint.

contacting solicitor monday re:log book loans apparently they are very very bad boys and have lots of litigation against them.

contacting another solicitor monday re:wheel clamping as apparently what they are doing is illegal and will update on this shortly. have to get a copy of the warrant and then make a statutory statement as i did not get the relevant paperwork from them.
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look at this interesting link
SiA.,The SiA,Bailiffs & self employed,Road Traffic Act 1991,RTA.Bailiff and car on finance,Clamping,Immobilisation,Uncertificated bailiffs,Contravention codes
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SiA.,The SiA,Bailiffs & self employed,Road Traffic Act 1991,RTA.Bailiff and car on finance,Clamping,Immobilisation,Uncertificated bailiffs,Contravention codes

and this
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Info about - County Court Bulk Centre - Traffic Enforcement Centre


sorry i meant this
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Drakes Group complaint

and this is where i am going to take them to court as they did the same thing to me.
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Info about - County Court Bulk Centre - Traffic Enforcement Centre


this is interesting too

[jules2008]

Re: jules2008 hardship claims

hi guys sorry bout messing up last message.
Having no food has messed up my brain cells and i am doubling up on things. lol
tomorrow will be an informative day for me and hopefully will be able to update information regarding log book loans and wheel clamping.

[Amethyst]

Re: jules2008 hardship claims

Re Solicitors - are you thinking of using the same ones re Wheel Clamping and LBL ?

LBL do what is right for YOU in your situation. You have enough stresses on without taking on a prolonged litigation and legal aid etc. I presume you are getting involved in the class action with Stephensons. Have you dug out your agreements etc with them (LBL) yet?

[jules2008]

Re: jules2008 hardship claims

Yes i have original agreement with lbl and statements of all payments etc and they are sending me legal aid forms.

Wheel clamping is with another solicitors not stevensons but now is the best time to do it when my income is not that great so i will get legal aid as i am starting a new job next week and then i will be in a position where i may not get help with costs.
I do feel like i have alot of litigation going on but they all seem to go at a snails pace anyway so it is nothing i cant deal with. They wont all be going on at the same time if it comes to court so will deal with each one as it happens. Just keep all the paperwork for each one seperately and keep organised lol
yeah rite.
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hi everyone hope your week is going well.

can anyone tell me if getting assigned a case worker is a good sign that things are moving forward or not or is it just a way of them saying we have your paperwork and you are put to the bottom of the pile of their other claims?

[Amethyst]

Re: jules2008 hardship claims

Not sure hunny but Halifax seem to pay out quite promptly on hardship claims and seems to be full amounts straight off so I dont think you will have too much of a problem.